Which need of knowledge for designing a regional policy for agritourism, at the junction of two domains ? The case of Region Auvergne (France) | Quel besoin de connaissance pour concevoir une politique régionale pour l'agritourisme, à la jonction de deux domaines ? Le cas de la Région Auvergne (France)

[Departement_IRSTEA]Territoires [TR1_IRSTEA]DTAM [Axe_IRSTEA]DTAM1-REPRO [Axe_IRSTEA]DTAM2-ACPUB [Axe_IRSTEA]DTAM-QT1-INEGALITES

International audience

English. Agritourism is an activity which associates two distinctive sectors, with their proper characteristics, in the economic, professional, organizational fields. Up to now agritourism was mostly considered and studied in relation to agricultural stakes, as the diversification of an agricultural activity (even if it is now acknowledged that it may be a specific activity, chosen ex ante by new entrepreneurs). It is less considered in relation to specific stakes of tourism, and in relation to the local territorial framework of the "tourist destination". The present communication reports part of a study which stemmed from the meeting of our research on territorial integration and governance of rural tourism, with the wish of knowledge expressed by a regional organization recently in charge of a new policy in favour of agritourism. In the case of the region Auvergne, the Regional institution wanted to help more efficiently the farmers to find more revenue, and/or employment by the way of diversification in agritourism. It asked recently the Regional tourism Committee (CRT) to take this policy in charge. The CRT is leading a very active policy for the development of tourism but has to know better agritourism in order to set up a very specific strategy. In the same time, researchers involved in a program about the models of tourism (MODINTOUR) are studying the territorial integration of tourism (Jenkins, 2001), which includes complementarities with other local activities. Their approach is organizational, and the research questions draw on the stakes and the forms of coordination , of governance in a view of management. Concerning agritourism, this work has to take into account the specificity and the diversity of logics both at the individual and at the institutional levels in the agricultural domain. The main questions for the whole study are so : - What are the economic and social stakes of such a policy : how many farmers involved, how many jobs…What are the needs and how to adapt the sets of public help and action in the domains of: investment, marketing, production, quality ? - how to articulate the specific organization of agritourism (networks and public support, e.g. by the consular chamber) and the recent forms of organization in the tourism domain which the CRT impulsed vigourously ? The communication tells mainly about the second point. The first phase of the study showed - some importance of agritourism for the local offer, and especially its contribution to qualifying the destinations of dispersed tourism (Marsat, 2011) - a diversity of the logics of the farmers and of the logics of the networks - the relevance of support already available for the farmers through consular chamber and networks, … but the expressed need for more public help in the domains of investment, of promotion, of marketing skills…the stake of better cooperation between networks, the need to link the existing support system to the specialised tourism bodies, and the need for a renewed common strategy.